The People’s Parliament convener and his ‘MPs’ commenting in the blog do not believe that it was any Chinese individual who had tossed the pig heads. Instead they think that blame should be laid at the door of agent provocateurs out to cause havoc between the races and religions.

They also believe that the pig head incidents and the recent bible distribution in Jelutong, Penang are acts of sabotage to lend a political advantage to Umno-BN.

The distrust of each other is now so high that, not only in the episodes listed above but in many other areas as well, political partisans will almost automatically be inclined to think that their opponent did it.

Mamaks and converts

Among the Malay circles, it is perceived that Lim Guan Eng was willing to appoint Zairil Khir Johari to the party CEC only because his political secretary is really a full-blooded Chinese.

A mini phenomenon in the blog of Zainuddin Maidin, former Information Minister as well as the ex-boss of Utusan, is also interesting to note in relation to the race-religion conundrum of Malaysia.

There is a lot of hostility among DAP supporters for Ridhuan Tee Abdullah who claims that the Chinese (those he never fails to term as “ultra kiasu”) look down on the national language. Although the translator name list above is merely anecdotal and not empirical evidence, it nonetheless provides food for thought.

Then there is the attitude of DAP and the party supporters to mamaks. Buletin Mutiara in an editorial called once them “Melayu Celup Kopi“; a DAP senator tweeted saying “Mamak the fake Malays taking over Umno” and of course the infamous “hitam metalik” slur.

I’ve highlighted the snippets to show that there are certain attitudes which still hold sway in our society inasmuch as DAP 2.0 politicians are fond of quoting the Quran and donning the tudung even when they are not in a place of worship.

Topping up these attitudes, the Jerusubang supremacists have now additionally taken to riding the PAS-inspired moral high horse of mengkafir (accuse others to be infidels) those Chinese and non-Christians who fail to pay homage to their evangelist idols.

This mengkafir attitude among the opposition Chinese evangelical Christian is quite akin to the attitude held with regard to the mamak and the mualaf.

Florida pastor Terry Jones caused an uproar when he threatened to burn the Quran. His act was not isolated from the society he lived in.

When Ibrahim Ali made his burn the Allah-bible call, his act did not arise from a vacuum either. Thus far, a lot of attention has been focused on Perkasa due to the shenanigans of the movement’s president.

Terry Jones’s threat was not linked to Islam alone but to his own Christianity. Likewise Ibrahim Ali’s threat is not just about him, about Perkasa, about the “easily confused” Malays but also about the group that Ibrahim Ali is feeling angry at.

It takes rubbing two sticks to light a fire. The other ‘stick’ should not pretend complete innocence to the possibility of fire sparking. The spotlight should be shone not only on Perkasa but on the other stick as well to examine our belligerent societal mores.

“The distrust of each other is now so high that, not only in the episodes listed above but in many other areas as well, political partisans will almost automatically be inclined to think that their opponent did it.”

There is one exception the above observation. At a race course, punters of different races don’t seem to be concerned about the adverse political weather outside of the complex.

Their mood remain the same; conversation and sharing of tips are still no less than sincere; the races are still as dramatic as before – a mixture of thrills and spills.

The key word here is REMOVED. Why not use SACKED instead? Me thinks it is to soften the impact (i.e. the blow) on Pakatan Rakyat (more specifically, PAS) by this latest scandal. Wouldn’t it be worst (but accurate) if SACKED was used instead?

And yes, it is a scandal! You sacked someone of good moral calibre and who is not afraid to call for the unity of the Muslims and yet you keep an old senile tok guru, a coward president and si khalwat dgn bini org no 2. What is to become of PAS?

This made me remember a verse from the Quran, that aptly describes the situation we are currently in:

Surah Al Anfal, ayat 73: “The unbelievers are protectors, one of another: Unless ye do this (protect each other), there would be tumult and oppression on earth, and great mischief”

spin ke span ke, we like helen views. even if she write something we do not like to hear, we still like. free to write and speech ma. we need more ppl like helen. Anyway you also free to write what you think. no one block ma. But the difference comes in IQ level. Kikiki.

-plentiful here in KL alone. I m dealing with lots of them. Not only they dont know how to use it, in fact they cant even speak properly in it. Worst still, the moment another chinks chap join in, or if you have discussion with 2 or 3 of them, they would ocasionaly speak in chinese among them. Do you agree with this kind of behavior?

The issue here is more about the leaflet not the event. Unspinner was right when they say the leaflet doesn’t belong to Perkasa based on its composition, grammar and arrangement and subsequently the no-show itself is another proof to support their assumption.

Since you didn’t buy their argument, that mean you have your own assumption. So in your opinion who did the “baling batu sembunyi tangan” with regard to leaflet issue? And please bear in mind that you also need to produce the evidence. OK Bro!

Yawn, in last few years, right wingers of the umno perkasa variety have threatened all sorts of actions. Perhimpunan Amuk, Panglima Perang, race war, over 9000 silat masters to counter bersih, and now burn Bibles… straight from IA’s mouth. What happened? Nothing.

So its also likely the leaftets may have come from the those guys.

And why should I also take unspinners seriously? All their stuff is shown to be bullshit anyways…

I think this has gone on long enough. People are speculating about an event that DID NOT HAPPEN. Normally, when a negative or possibly seditious incident was avoided, it means that common sense prevailed. Whether it is deliberate provocation or planted misinformation, cooler heads prevailed. The fact that the event did not take place does not mean few disagree with what was proposed. Despite that, I will take the whole incident positively, in general.

The muslims can never win, whether bibles were burned or not burned. The Allah row stems from the act of ADUNs who voted to keep such terms away from the use by non-muslims in the late 1980s onwards. Where was DAP and PAS state assemblymen back then? Weren’t they complicit in the entire affair? Tak cukup majoriti? The laws are still here and although it is Syariah in nature, it has been given a civil court enforcement and is applicable to non-muslims. If PKR and DAP support the use of Allah by ALL Malaysians, FIX the State laws la, say start with Penang then Selangor. Grow some balls and actually walk the talk, do the job you are supposed (and paid) to do, which is de-regulate the use of terms like Solat, Kaabah, Allah, etc.

As a genuine user of BM, I would like to access to words like iman, nabi and ibadah without some regulation hanging over my head. The list of faith words made off-limits to non-Muslims keeps growing longer and longer.

The exclusive usage is not limited by race but by religion referenced. To pick an example of Melaka’s gazetted list (Enakmen Kawalan dan Sekatan Pengembangan Agama Bukan Islam 1988 – 33 words and 15 phrases), note that even Assalamualaikum (Peace be upon you) is barred from non-muslim use in Malaysia when in fact it is the suffix w.b.t. that is Islamic.

The penalty is a RM1,000 fine, most likely administered under the Mahkamah Majistret.

JAIS’s list is shorter (25 words and 10 phrases).

Penang, like the Federal Territories, Sabah and Sarawak, have not gazetted such laws. So I suppose the only PR states in the soup is Selangor, as I don’t forsee PAS ever going to let that happen in Kedah or Kelantan. To Khalid’s credit, I remembered he did proposed such a revision but was immediately shot down.

I think once you need the law to limit word usage for a particular religion, these are signs of repressive and regressive laws. Our muslim friends must realize that there is some confusion in ISOLATING State Islam (ASWJ) and in PROTECTING Islam. I am actually still trying to undestand how gazetting those words for exclusive use to refer to the Islamic faith will make a difference. I am sure the gazette doesn’t mean non-muslims cannot use it to refer to Islam, it means that proselytizers cannot use the words out of the specified Islamic context. The question has always been whether our religious authorities are trying to legislate something that is not governable.

“The question has always been whether our religious authorities are trying to legislate something that is not governable.”

Good point. The government can legislate and create as many act/enactment. We have first class laws but third class enforcement. Harussani Zakaria alleged in 2006 that about 100k Muslims have renounced Islam. His statement is reported by Mkini. Until today, there is no prosecution on the proselytizers under the relevant state enactments.

Similarly, there is no remedial action taken on the converted persons. Harussani didn’t sue Mkini for defamation and the government also didn’t take action against him for spreading ‘lies’. Perak government also didn’t sack him. So, who is speaking the truth here? I am really confused.

The question of murtaad in our syariah laws is a conundrum atm for several reasons, not the least because the limitations of the Islamic courts in Malaysia.

It can only pass sentences of not more than three years imprisonment, a fine of up to RM5,000, and/or up to six strokes of the cane. I believed that’s the new limit, it used to be less. The real question is, do our state lawmakers really want to go somewhere they might regret?